The 7th annual GNOME User and Developer European Conference (GUADEC) will draw businesses, government, education and end users to Barcelona.
BOSTON, Mass. – 20 June, 2005 – The 7th annual GNOME User and Developer European Conference (GUADEC) will bring software developers, as well as business, government and private users of free and open source software to Barcelona (Catalonia – Spain).
The conference highlights the capabilities and direction of GNOME, the free software desktop and development environment for personal computers, workstations, and portable Internet devices.
Topics will include development workshops, translation showcases, business models for free software development, GNOME in mobile devices, and discussions about the future of GNOME.
GUADEC will be jointly organized by the GNOME Foundation, the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan Government), the Council of Barcelona, the Internet Global Congress (IGC) and the local free software community. The event takes place in combination with the IGC at Fira de Barcelona in May 2006, with the exact date yet to be announced.
Owen Taylor, chairman of the board of the GNOME Foundation, welcomes the participation of the local administrations: “This is a splendid opportunity to showcase their developments in e-government and education, and to share that with visitors from all over the world.”
The Generalitat de Catalunya and the Council of Barcelona are committed to the use of open standards and free and open source software in the public sector and are encouraging the adoption of free software by citizens.
The secretary for Telecommunications and the Information Society in the Catalan Government, Oriol Ferran, highlighted “the importance for Catalunya to host events such as GUADEC as it helps us to support the government’s national policy to promote Free Software development”.
According to Oriol Ferran “These meetings allow us to access the main points of debate about Free Software development thus situating Catalonia as an international reference point in this field”.
About GNOME and the GNOME Foundation
Comprised of hundreds of volunteer developers and industry-leading companies, the GNOME Foundation is an organization committed to supporting the advancement of GNOME. GNOME is a free software desktop and development environment for personal computers, workstations, networked servers and portable Internet devices. Major leading software industry and computer manufacturers support the GNOME development effort, which is led by a worldwide community of volunteers. The Foundation provides organizational, financial and legal support to the GNOME project and helps determine its vision and roadmap. More information on GNOME is available at http://www.gnome.org/.
About GUADEC
The GNOME User and Developer Europe Conference (GUADEC) is an annual gathering of GNOME developers, enthusiasts and individual, business, education and government users worldwide. It provides a forum for members of the GNOME project to showcase their work and to discuss the future of GNOME development. Housed in a different European country each year, GUADEC is a catalyst for the future development and direction of GNOME. More at guadec.gnome.org.
About the IGC
The Internet Global Congress is the leading Internet and New Technologies congress in Spain. Organized by the Fundació Barcelona Digital, the Congress comprises a series of conferences addressing a number of key Information Society themes, and an exhibition (IGC Village) where delegates can discover the latest ICT products and services. More at www.igcweb.net.
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